diff --git a/.github/workflows/new_publish_release.yml b/.github/workflows/new_publish_release.yml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c855e4da6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/new_publish_release.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+name: Upgraded Publish Release
+on:
+  workflow_dispatch:
+    inputs:
+      version:
+        type: string
+        required: true
+        description: "Release version (e.g. 1.2.3). Corresponding tag (v1.2.3) should already exist."
+      to_testpypi:
+        type: boolean
+        required: true
+        default: true
+        description: "Publish to testpypi."
+
+
+jobs:
+  build:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+        with:
+          ref:  v${{ inputs.version }}
+      - name: Install Python 3
+        uses: actions/setup-python@v5
+        with:
+          python-version: "3.11"
+
+      - name: Validate version
+        shell: bash
+        run: |
+          pip install --upgrade pip packaging
+          python3 - <<END
+          from packaging.version import parse
+          if not parse("${{ inputs.version }}"):
+              exit(1)
+          END
+
+      - name: update version
+        shell: bash
+        run: |
+          echo "__version__ = '${{ inputs.version }}'" >  model_compression_toolkit/version.py
+          echo "model_compression_toolkit/version.py content:"
+          cat model_compression_toolkit/version.py
+
+      - name: Build wheel
+        shell: bash
+        run: |
+          pip install build twine
+          python -m build --wheel
+
+      - name: Publish package pypi
+        if: inputs.to_testpypi == false
+        shell: bash
+        run: |
+          twine upload --repository pypi dist/* -u __token__ -p ${{ secrets.PYPI_API_KEY }}
+
+      - name: Publish package testpypi
+        if: inputs.to_testpypi == true
+        shell: bash
+        run: |
+          twine upload --repository testpypi dist/* -u __token__ -p ${{ secrets.TEST_PYPI_API_KEY }}
diff --git a/model_compression_toolkit/__init__.py b/model_compression_toolkit/__init__.py
index 28ec7a4c1..daab76240 100644
--- a/model_compression_toolkit/__init__.py
+++ b/model_compression_toolkit/__init__.py
@@ -27,4 +27,3 @@
 from model_compression_toolkit import pruning
 from model_compression_toolkit.trainable_infrastructure.keras.load_model import keras_load_quantized_model
 
-__version__ = "2.2.0"
diff --git a/model_compression_toolkit/version.py b/model_compression_toolkit/version.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..bc53f9d21
--- /dev/null
+++ b/model_compression_toolkit/version.py
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+__version__ = '0.0.0'    # this updated on the fly in .github/workflows/
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index c1b3e6aad..b40d89e41 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 [metadata]
 description-file = README.md
-version = attr: model_compression_toolkit.__version__
\ No newline at end of file
+version = attr: model_compression_toolkit.version.__version__